Sega has revealed another benefit for Xbox gamers who pick up Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 & 2: they'll be able to keep a whole lot of characters on file. Taking full advantage of the Xbox's built-in hard drive, Sega announced they will be enabling players to retain as many as twelve characters at once. It was not made clear whether all twelve characters would be simultaneously playable online, or whether the game would follow a Diablo II-style system of having both online and offline characters; either way, this announcement is another point in favor of the Xbox's built in hard drive.

PSO originally launched on the Dreamcast and is now being ported to both the Gamecube and Xbox. PSO will be available with the Xbox Live! service, which is set to launch next month.